short works

Short + sweet

Short films and live performances, created and in some cases performed by Sophie and various collborators. Collborators Include UK Band Strays, world-class hand balancer Sacha Bachman and filmmaker Thomas Hubener. Most these short productions have been filmed all over the world, including Macau, Egypt, the UK and Romania, and feature professional artists and community volunteers of all ages. Short works are amazing to test out ideas, or make new collaborative partnerships, and you will see here shorts from Sophie’s time at dance conservatory London Contemporary Dance School, various stages of her career development, and into professional production.

HOMEPLAY

(2021)

Composed and Written by Chloe Charody

Disability Access Mentor: Daryl Beeton

ROLE: Choreographer and Aerial Pole Artist

HomePlay is a new digital theatre programme created by CHLOE CHARODY CREATIONS and funded by ARTS COUNCIL ENGLAND where disabled children collaborate with world-class creatives to make new disability-led innovative productions in the genre of Circus Opera. No-one even needs to leave home! HomePlay’s first programme kicked off at Oakfield School in Nottingham on April 20 2021. Over the course of 2 weeks, Chloe Charody and Daryl Beeton worked with four disabled children to write stories which Chloe then turned into Circus Operas.

On completion of these Circus Operas, Chloe went on to work with a team of world class interdisciplinary performers including an acrobatic-fire-breathing violin virtuoso and 3 opera singers trained on aerial trapeze to bring each of the Circus Operas to life.

Performed by THE RED SAPPHIRES: Caitlin Redding, Lexi Hutton, Elli Huber, Sonja Schebeck & pianist Thomas Victor Johnston ... Act 1, Scene 1: At The Top of The Eiffel Tower Froglein Fleur, Froglein Floris, Froglein Freda & Froglein Fanny are swinging on trapezes that hang from the beams at the top of the Eiffel Tower. They are performing their nightly cabaret show to a spars audience of pigeons, rats, and mice. ... Music, story & direction by Chloé Charody Lyrics by Chloé Charody & Duncan Townsend Choreography by Sophie Duncan & Elli Huber Costumes by Elli Huber Filmed by Polina Georgescu Produced by Chloé Charody Creations supported by Arts Council England ... Chloé Charody wrote the story for A CHEETAH IN PARIS via her company's access programme, HomePlay which sees professional creatives from around the world team up with disability-led children to write new circus operas. A CHEETAH IN PARIS was written with Dylan Hepburn from Oakfield School Nottingham.

NEW RELIK : MEMOIR

(2020)

A pandemic creation project, working with Cirque Du Soleil artists in limbo during the 2020/21 COVID pandemic

Circus + Theatre = New Relik

A genre combining circus, theatre, music and dance with immersive storytelling and gripping worlds 

Finding ourselves, like many more, powerless in the pandemic, former Cirque Du Soleil artists Sophie Duncan and Tomas (Wilu) Wilkosz, met over Zoom with dramaturg and theatre maker Joanne Skapinker (furloughed from Punchdrunk at the time) to begin forming the company, and a new show. The mission was to create work that uses the mystique of circus, with real drama and powerful storytelling, transporting audiences into breathtaking worlds where they can shape their own experience.

Taking advantage of an offer of free training space in Wilu’s former home theatre, the Neue Flora, Hamburg (host of Cirque Du Soleil’s Paramour), they invited 10 former CDS artists and 4 classical composer / musicians from ‘The Freestyle Orchestra’, to embark on 2 weeks of creation and R&D, culminating in the foundations of New Relik’s flagship production.
As New Relik, the idea was to create worlds where the immediacy of the present day and history meet. We will take our audience to a moment in time over one hundred years ago, but the world they discover feels vividly modern. We’d like to use non-traditional, found spaces such as parks, buildings and unusual spaces to find ways for the audience to have the agency to explore our world, with choices of what to see; opportunities to follow a particular thread of the tale through a space and see what they discover.

Old meets new through our live music, too. In our productions, we’re exploring this through our collaboration with musicians from The Freestyle Orchestra, who combine classical musicianship with loop-pedal vocals, and vintage songs with contemporary arrangements and circus skills.

Memoirs is now archived with the intension that it will resurface with further development and funding .

S L E E P E R

+ The Making Of Documentary

(2017)

S L E E P E R was a multi disciplinary film set in heart of the Midlands. Featuring 16 young dancers, 2 award winning pole dancers and original music by Strays, the film shapes a dark, obscure alternative to the industrial past of Chesterfield. Filmed at The Barrowhill Roundhouse and Chesterfield Canal, this is the first collaboration by Sophie, Musical Director Adam McCulloch and film maker Nick Allott.

Pole Artists: Lorna Walker, Lisa Hammond

Dancers: Sophie Duncan, Kerry - Anne Woodhead, Ellie Rose Walker, Ashton Harkness, Aimee Dakin, Melissa Middleton, Jasmin Fox, Jasmine Blackwell, Abbie Linacre, Sophie Badderley, Ben Featherstone, Molly Baldwin, Declan Stanhope, Jacob Smith, Milly Schleifer, Libby McGarry, Georgia Ellis

ROB THE POST OFFICE

(2011)

ROBIN HOWARD DANCE THEATRE / LYRIC HAMMERSMITH / DALSTON, LONDON, UK

Creator / Choreographer:: Sophie Duncan

Shows Performed: 5    Audience: 500+          Cast: 1 Artist

ROB THE POST OFFICE was on of the first shows Sophie performed pressionally, at various London venues. A strong physcial theatre piece, developed while still at London Contemporary Dance School, the piece is based on the film BRONSON, starring Tom Hardy. Michael Peterson, better known as Charles Bronson, is one of Britain's most notorious prisoners, Locked up in the 1970's for robbing a post office of £50, he's been locked up ever since due to his intence antiks while on the inside such as holding hostages, beating up guards, setting fires and otherwise odd behaviour.